


The Danger of the Wronged Sea

by FiresFromOurHearts



Series: Uncharted Waters [12]
Category: Naruto
Genre: AU of an AU, Alternate Universe, Gen, Rebuilt Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, Reincarnation, Sometimes not everything is perfect and people aren't always good, The Fall Of Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, nor do they always make the best decisions in life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29753193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts
Summary: In some worlds, Toru stays in Konoha. In some worlds, he runs and never looks back.
Series: Uncharted Waters [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1875832
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	The Danger of the Wronged Sea

They ask Toru if he wants to remain a ninja, tell him that he doesn’t have to be. They try to comfort him, tell him that things will be alright, tell him that he isn’t alone.

_(But Toru woke up with the memory of a blade being stabbed through his chest—and it is not Itachi he remembers, but another figure from long ago. A blade twisted. A village dying. The screams of his people.)_

Toru says he doesn’t want to be, draws himself apart, acts vulnerable and fearful and worried, _(it’s not an act, he is those things, and he knows it, but he’s playing it up more—he’s a ninja, Uzukage and ANBU Commander and he knows what he’s doing)_.

But they think him a child, think him helpless, think him average and simple and all the things that he is not. They did not realise what they were dealing with, the ninja lying silently in wait.

A night after he told them he doesn’t want to be a ninja, Toru leaves. Uzushio is calling for him past the horizon, the wind calls his name and urges him forward. There is no other choice—Toru runs.

He run, the wind at his back, invisible waves at his heels. He runs and runs and runs, _(and in Konoha, Sasuke is left alone, betrayed by someone he will never know)._ When he reaches Uzushio, Toru calls his people home. His people hear him on the wind, the words rolling in from the sea, echoing in their souls. And they come home, trickling in slowly and then coming in as a flood.

And, in Konoha, life takes a sharp turn to the left and Sasuke falls into the place the world had once destined for him.

_(The Uchiha Clan does not give itself a better reputation. Naruto does not find a home with a family. Sasuke does not smile at the world around him but scowls. And, below Konoha within her walls, ROOT continues to operate.)_

Here is what happens:

Uzushio follows her future path. Her people return, her walls rise, and her whirlpools begin to spin again. Uzu no Kuni flourishes. However, there is no information network here, hiding Uzushio from the world. That does not mean Uzushio falls, though.

Rather, Uzushio is strong in ways no one expected. What else can they do but strengthen their defences and sharpen their weapons? Uzushio will never again sit and wait for enemies on her shores.

Toru picks up where he left of. He’s young in body, but not in soul. He knows what he’s doing now. He directs ANBU teams and picks missions and trains people. And he smiles doing it, laughs, and the people beside him grin. They laugh with him and smile with him and work with him.

Still though, Uzushio does not reach out to the large villages, not yet. Instead, they reach out to the small villages—the ones who are ignored, who are smaller, who aren’t as powerful. Uzushio might not be big, might have fallen, but they still make trade agreements and alliances.

For a few years, Uzushio does not try for anything more. They were brought down low and killed and their own allies did not help them. But Toru does have to wonder, what went wrong? Why did Kirigakure attack? Because Kirigakure should not have attacked, they mightn’t have been allies but they had been neighbours with a relatively amiable relationship.

And what about Konoha’s Ambassador? Where did they fall in this? Where did they die? She had been chosen for a reason, to be able to take messages to Konoha swiftly and safely, so why did Konoha never find them and help them? Why did Konoha only learn of the invasion after they had fallen?

In the end, Toru comes to the realisation that Konoha has some connection to all of this. And Konoha is their ally, they _should_ reach out—even if Toru is meant to be there, _(even if he left a child with a massacred clan and ran without looking back)_.

_(Toru has regrets and Sasuke will always be one of them in this world, because Toru ran and abandoned a child—it was for Uzushio, and he couldn’t have made any other choice, but he does regret what Sasuke is left to deal with alone.)_

There is no coming back from this.

Maybe Toru took himself and ran when he remembered Uzushio, but there’s still a boy in Konoha left behind. And… maybe he can’t fix it, but maybe he can make it better. And maybe he can find out the truth—what Konoha really did when Uzushio fell.

_(And this is where canon gets tossed out the window as Toru re-enters Konoha with the strength of a tornado.)_

**Author's Note:**

> And that's the end of this one! It's not very long, but it is done at least. I don't have much to say, but I hoped you enjoyed!


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